Many businesses, and for that matter, business owners, are still at a loss when the term ‘CRM’ comes up. For the most part, it is viewed as a database of your existing customers.
Historically, contact details are held in either an access database, or most typically, on an Excel spreadsheet. However, what either of these systems lack is the “R” in CRM.
CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”. And it is the “Relationship” bit that is the key to not only retaining your current clients, but also in growing your customer base. Before and even during the digital age, we relied on a notepad or a phone book, but without the “Relationship” piece, what we have now is just a replication of the phone book on a screen.
In order to use this information efficiently, we need to be able to analyse and measure information from our clients. Using a system such as Sage CRM, we can target key information and display it on a tailored page to suit the user. For your sales people, live KPI’s such as Cross Sell Opportunities or a Live Pipeline, makes their job and the company’s growth easier.
With Sage CRM, we can pull information from both a Sales Pipeline and Sage Accounts. We can then create tasks on critical opportunities based on the company’s selling criteria.
Gone are the days of solely relying on your sales representatives to tell you where the next sale is coming from by looking at his/her notebook. Now you have the opportunity of not only offering this critical information to your staff, but also to your management.
Key Performance Indicators such as the following are available: 
- Leads Generated by Source
- Actuals vs. Target
- Monthly Sales Trends
- Like for Likes against Months from previous years
- Won vs. Lost Deals by Reason
- Top Open Deals
- Opportunities by Sales Rep
These KPI’s are just for the Sales Team, however similar information can be gathered from Sage CRM based on customer activity such as At Risk Customers or Customer Case (Issues) Pipeline.
With one day’s planning, this solution can be mapped out to help both measure and build your business for the coming year.
Suddenly, the term CRM, begins to make much more sense!
With twenty years’ experience in delivering IT Services, and implementing Sage Solutions, the team at DB Computer Solutions have implemented key software changes to help businesses become more efficient and profitable.
For more information contact Howard on 061-480980 or email us at info@dbcomp.ie